Known in the art are numerous embodiments of control cables which essentially consist in a control cable provided with a sheath in which the ends of the steel cable incorporate a respective steel cable terminal adapted for coupling thereof to an actuating control and to its associated mechanism, while the ends of the sheath incorporate a respective sheath terminal, one or both of which are attached, through fixing means incorporated on the sheath terminal, to fixed points situated along the route of the steel-cable.
Fixing of one of the sheath terminals is frequently implemented on a fixed point of the structure of the vehicle on which the steel cable passes through a dividing wall. Passage of the steel cable through the dividing wall is implemented through a through-orifice which forms a closed cavity or through a gap made on the edge of the dividing wall which forms an open cavity, said cavities being closed or open where the sheath terminal is fixed.
In those cases in which the sheath terminal is fixed to an open cavity, it is usual practice for the fixing means of the sheath terminal to include, along general lines, a tubular body to which is fixed the end of the sheath, which can be attached to the open cavity by means of screws or a body of elastic material. The main disadvantages of such fixing means is that they require long assembly times for fitting the sheath terminal onto the automobile vehicle, which increases production costs, and/or a certain lack of reliability deriving from the fact that, under certain service conditions, for example when the sheath terminal fixing means are subjected to high mechanical stresses arising due to vehicle driving conditions, the sheath terminal can come out of the open cavity leaving the control cable out of service.
Document EP-A-627 570 (VOFA-WERK XAVIER VORBRUGGEN GmbH & Co. Kg, published on Dec. 7, 1994) describes a sheath terminal for control cables which is attachable to a dividing wall. The sheath terminal comprises a fixing body, a terminal body and a retaining body, which are all tubular and coaxially attached to each other, and means for their attachment to a dividing wall, which include annular slots and elastic extensions inwardly extended. The sheath terminal has the drawback in the performance of its fixing means, because once the terminal is attached to a fixing cavity in the dividing wall, if the sheath terminal need to be removed from said retaining cavity for its maintenance or for repairing the vehicle, the elastic nature of the fixing means makes it difficult to carry out said removal.